Speech Therapy
Our talented Speech Pathologists work to improve and expand communication with children who have apraxia of speech, receptive and expressive language difficulties, and language delays and disorders. Speech Therapy Services are offered in Camp Hill, PA
The DIR Approach to Language Development
A gesture, a sign, a word!
Parents often want their child to talk more. We want that too. Our developmental approach makes sure that children have foundational skills necessary to be effective communicators. Listed below are foundational pieces necessary to get to expressive language
1) Engagement
2) Intentionality
3) Shared meanings and Ideas
4) Comprehension
5) Production
We accept and honor all forms of communication. Gestures are something we don’t always think about with children. When children first learn to gesture, they learn that their communication has power! This invites more communication. For some children, learning some signs can empower them! Research has shown that learning signs will not inhibit an individual’s ability to speak verbally. Picture boards or books can also help children express themselves. We want to look the best way to get your child to communicate so that there is less frustration and relationships can grow.
Social reciprocity
Speech Sound Production
In our day to day interactions, we have back and forth responses with many individuals in our lives. For us to have successful social reciprocity, we take in what people are communicating to us, and respond in a thoughtful, collected way. Our partner then does the same thing and we are able to have a positive social interaction.
There are many factors that affect social reciprocity. One important factor is empathy. We have to care about the other person and think about their personal experience. We have to process that information and respond in a thoughtful way. Other factors include maintaining an appropriate arousal level, taking in the environment in a calm way, and timing the interactions to be in sync with our partner.
Speech therapy can help children better learn this dance of back and forth interaction so that they can have conversations and form strong social relationships.
There are typical speech developmental patterns such as a 4 year old not saying “th” or “rrr” sounds. As children grow and develop, these patterns often go away. When these patterns linger, the child may need speech therapy to help them with particular speech sounds.
Speech therapy can target the motor production of speech sounds. This is often referred as articulation. Speech therapy can also target the linguistic aspects of speech sounds. This is often referred as phonological.